I've just replaced the japanese stereo on my STI with a Kenwood and the CD and Tape are fine but get very limited reception on the radio(Only Classic FM !!), RDS only finds that. Guy at ICE shop says its due to the antenna and all Bee Stings are the same (also same on his Corsa). Anyone else came across this issue? I live in Central Scotland and get fine reception on my other car using standard electric antenna.

 

Well my Corsa certainly wasn't like that !

I think the jap beesting and the std UK aerials are of the same quality as everything else on the car non performance related i.e crap !

I have an alpine head unit which is very sensitive but in the scoob crap reception reigns..

 

Bee-sting antennas might not give quite such a good reception because they have a very strange ground plane underneath them to work with. I'm not an expert by any means, but apparently a good ground plane is the secret of a good reception.

Best place for an ariel is vertical in the middle of the roof. Unfortunately, this really isn't practical.

First thing to check is that your antenna is grounding properly (onto clean, not painted, metal). Next, it may be worth trying a more expensive antenna. Hirschmann are fairly well respected in this area.